Pain

Avery from Zumbrota wants to know: How many baseballs do they go through during a game? Some of the baseballs end up in the hands of fans. Some are re-used the next day for batting practice. But during the course of a Twins game, about 10 dozen, or about 120 baseballs, are used.

Most children get anxious if they have to go the hospital, or even the doctor’s office for a shot. Pain is scary for kids. So in this age of modern medicine, why isn’t a bigger effort made to alleviate pain in children? Answering that question led to a cutting-edge program at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics. There, a doctor who came all the way from Germany is taking away the pain of kids in the Twin Cities.

Chronic aches and pains can keep you from going to the gym or doing any kind of exercise, but the irony of that is that exercise is probably exactly what you need to alleviate the pain you’re having — whether it’s in your joints or your back.

Acupuncture can be a great stress and pain reliever. But there’s a prickly side to it that you feel in your pocketbook. Acupuncturist Kerri Casey of Minnesota Community Acupuncture saw that as a problem. “If you have to come two or three times a week, who can afford $65 dollars three times a week? It’s a very limited group of people and I knew I couldn’t afford it,” Casey said. “And I said if I can’t afford acupuncture, how are other people gonna afford that?”

Americans spend more than $250 billion a year on over-the-counter and prescription medications. When we have an ache or pain, we often take an aspirin or ibuprofen pill. But how do medications know where to target?